


dust and silence

by darthrevaan (Burning_Nightingale)



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Dimension, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Stranded Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-18 18:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20317705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_Nightingale/pseuds/darthrevaan
Summary: The explosion at Malachor strands Ahsoka and Vader together - and not in any place they know.





	dust and silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).

The place they end up after the explosion is not Malachor.

It was a city once. The towers have fallen, the roofs collapsed in upon themselves, and the roads cracked and crumbled, but the shape of the city is still there, under the dust.

It’s not just dead; it’s completely, utterly lifeless. Ahsoka has never been cut off from the Force before, but here she can’t feel it. Its comforting, ever-present warmth is gone. Absent.

She hears him stir behind her. “Where- where are we?” she asks in a whisper. She’s never heard a place so silent; it makes her reluctant to raise her voice.

Vader levers himself up to his feet, and surveys their surroundings in silence for several moments. “A dead world,” he says finally.

“I can’t feel the Force,” Ahsoka whispers.

“No. There are places like this, they say; places where the Force was ripped out of the fabric of the world.” Vader turns and begins to walk, not checking to see if she’s following him; after a moment she gets up and jogs to catch up with him.

“Where are you going?” she asks, staring up at the buildings around them.

“If we walk for long enough, perhaps we will come to the end of this hole in the Force.”

That seems as good a plan as any, so she follows. They walk in silence for a good long while, the broken, desolate city going past around them, before Ahsoka says, “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to kill me yet.”

“You may still be an asset to the Emperor,” Vader rumbles.

“You _know _I’m not going to join you.”

“And yet you promised to stay.” Vader’s helmet turns to look at her. “Perhaps you will join me after all.”

“That’s different,” she insists, “That’s about you and me. No one else.”

He looks at her for a moment longer. He says nothing else, but Ahsoka has the uncomfortable feeling she’s given something away that she did not mean to disclose.

The change comes as they approach a structure that was once grander and more imposing than the rest. Ahsoka sees it first; a faint red glow limning the edges of the rubble, leading them further inside. They clamber up through the wreckage of the destroyed, failing building, up into a wide, rubble-strewn room where a dais awaits them. Once there would have been glass in the windows lining the chamber, displaying the view outside; now they’re just gaping, empty holes.

The Sith Holocron is waiting for them on the dais, glowing softly. As they approach, Ahsoka hears a woman’s voice in her head. “A strange place to have found yourself, travellers,” she says, “How do you like my world?”

It must be whatever dark spirit or memory lurks within the holocron. “Not much,” Ahsoka says, folding her arms.

“Undo this,” Vader demands, coming up beside her, “Return us.”

“So soon? Don’t you want to understand what’s happening here?”

“Maybe we’d prefer if you just tell us,” Ahsoka says.

“This place…” The voice from the holocron sounds reverent. “This was my dream. My vision of the world, perfect and complete.”

“But there’s nothing here,” Ahsoka protests, “No life. No nothing.”

“No _Force_,” the voice says, “No Light. No Dark.”

“Just death,” Ahsoka says.

“Is death not better than slavery?” the voice asks.

“Enough,” Vader snaps, “Return us, holocron, or pay the price.”

“And with what will you threaten me?” the holocron sneers. “You are in my hands now, Sith.”

Vader reaches out and closes his fist. “Even a holocron may feel pain.”

“_That _will not endear you,” the holocron snaps, the red light inside it growing brighter. “But you are aberrations here. You mar the perfection of my world, with your lives and wills and your _Force_. I will send you back - if only to be rid of you."

“Thank you,” Ahsoka says, right before a searing white light blinds her eyes.

When she opens them again, she’s back on Malachor. Even the darkness-tainted, diseased-feeling touch of the Force here is preferable to the deadness she has just escaped, and for a moment she relishes it. Through it, she can feel Vader’s retreating Force signature; he’s above, probably staggering back to his ship.

No matter. She made a promise; she’ll see him again.

For now, though - the Temple.

Alone, she steps forward into the dark.


End file.
